The company has added Leaf production capacity far more quickly than Toyota did, Leaf assembly now taking place not only at the Oppama, Japan, plant where it began, but also at Sunderland in the U.K. and Smyrna, Tennessee, as well.

(It seems likely that the updates to its Smyrna assembly plant to add up to 150,000 electric cars a year may have been prompted by the 2009 availability of $1.6 billion in low-interest loans from the U.S. Department of Energy.)

Many more to come

But it is clear that the Leaf is just the first of many all-electric cars that will be launched by Nissan and its French alliance partner Renault over the balance of the decade.

The next Leaf, in perhaps 2016 or 2017, should be quite something. Just consider the 2003 New York Auto Show, when Toyota unveiled the 2004 Prius.